Africa Great Lakes Democracy Watch

Welcome toAfrica Great Lakes Democracy Watch Blog.Our objective is to promote the institutions of democracy,social justice,Human Rights,Peace, Freedom ofExpression, and Respect to humanity in Rwanda,Uganda,DR Congo, Burundi,Sudan, Tanzania, Kenya,Ethiopia, and Somalia. We strongly believe that Africa will develop if only our presidents stop being rulers of men and become leaders of citizens. We support Breaking the Silence Campaign for DR Congo since we believe the democracy in Rwanda means peace inDRC. Follow this link to learn more about the origin of the war in both Rwanda and DR Congo:http://www.rwandadocumentsproject.net/gsdl/cgi-bin/library

Monday, May 31, 2010

St. Paul, Minn. — Friends and family members of St. Paul law professor Peter Erlinder say he was taken to a hospital in Rwanda Monday after showing signs of illness following a police interrogation.

The medical attention came on Erlinder's fourth day of detention in a Rwandan jail. Last Friday, authorities locked up the well-known activist lawyer for allegedly spreading what are considered illegal views on the African country's genocide.

It's still unclear whether Erlinder will return to jail and face charges.

A fellow American lawyer who is in Rwanda fighting for Erlinder's release said the professor's jail stay appears to be aggravating his health conditions, including high blood pressure. Kurt Kerns said two defense attorneys from Kenya demanded the medical intervention on Erlinder's behalf.

"They're like, 'We're done with this interrogation. He doesn't look good. His blood pressure is high. We want him taken to a local hospital.' The local authorities complied," Kerns said.

Kerns said Erlinder will probably return to jail if and when a doctor approves. He said before Erlinder was whisked away to the hospital, Rwandan police asked Erlinder seven questions. While Kerns said he can't disclose the nature of the inquiry, he called the case against Erlinder, in his words, "pathetic."

"They did give us a glimpse as to what their accusations are, but we walked out with a pretty optimistic view of how ridiculously weak the charges are," Kerns said.

Rwandan authorities kicked Kerns out of the police interrogation because they said Kerns didn't have the proper credentials to represent Erlinder.

Erlinder teaches at St. Paul's William Mitchell College of Law and has been a pointed critic of Rwandan President Paul Kagame. Erlinder is in Rwanda to defend a presidential challenger against charges of promoting genocidal ideology.

Rwanda's genocide in 1994 killed more than 500,000 people, mostly Tutsis and moderate Hutus. The massacres ended when mostly Tutsi rebels led by Kagame defeated the Hutus.

Erlinder's wife, Masako Usui said her husband never denied that the massacre took place. But she said he has taken issue with the government's explanation as to how it came about, and that he thinks there was plenty of blame to go around. Now, some Rwandans have called her husband a "conspiracy terrorist."

"It says they don't care about human rights," Usui said. "They don't care about a bill of rights. So, I'm getting more and more angry."

Usui said Erlinder has high cholesterol and is running out of medication. Some of Erlinder's allies in Rwanda have even warned her that the jailers may try to poison his food.

Sen. Amy Klobuchar said Monday morning that there's no indication Erlinder was jailed for any reason other than representing his client. She said she has expressed her concerns to the U.S. State Department.

"I know their focus is on his fair treatment and that the process moves fairly and quickly, so we're giving every [piece of] information to the highest levels of the embassy," Klobuchar said. "Our hope is that there will be some kind of hearing either today, tomorrow, or Wednesday, and hopefully he can be at least released out of jail."

But Klobuchar said she doesn't know whether Erlinder will be able to come home anytime soon, as he works his way through Rwanda's struggling judicial system.

THE ARREST AND ARBITRARY DETENTION OF PROFESSOR PETER ERLINDER IS A SHAME.

Today at 12:12pmPRESS RELEASE

THE ARREST AND ARBITRARY DETENTION OF PROFESSOR PETER ERLINDER IS A SHAME.

We are saddened to witness powerlessly the arrest and arbitrary detention of Professor Peter Erlinder, the lead council of Ms. Victoire Ingabire, in Kigali on 28th May 2010. He was arrested by Rwandan authorities while he was working on the case of the Chair of FDU-Inkingi who is accused of genocide ideology and collaboration with a Rwandan terrorist group. He is accused of genocide ideology as well. It is our highest duty to raise the serious concern about the impossibility of fair trial as the cases of Ms. Victoire Ingabire and Professor Peter Erlinder are concerned.

The arrest of the lead defence council of an opposition leader and a presidential candidate deepens the political crisis as the August 2010 presidential elections loom. This happens only a few days after an abusive statement of President Kagame boasting his upper hand on the Rwandan judiciary, and echoing his chief Prosecutor’s public statements that there is overwhelming evidence that Ms. Victoire is guilty. Curiously, they don’t transfer their final charges to a Court of law. “The fact that this disinformation campaign originates at the highest levels of the Rwandan government was confirmed by President Kagame’s lengthy comments to the Monitor on May 23, 2010 in which he personally inserted himself directly in the legal case against the opposition leader, despite the fact that the case been initiated by the Kagame administration’s Chief Prosecutor Ngoga, and which will be heard by courts that are dependent upon the Kagame administration for their appointment and tenure”.

A fair trial is being violated because international lawyers would fear that their motions will lead to indictments being issued against them for ideology of genocide. In the eyes of this controversial Rwandan law on ideology of genocide, the defence or testimony to show the truth about the killings in Rwanda before, during and after the genocide would be taken as a proof of negation of the genocide. Then, the lawyers, experts’ witnesses and factual witnesses would fear the intimidation and threats to be arrested because of their positions to portray different views from Kagame’s regime.

These threats to be arrested raise the concerns of possibility of fair trial since the lawyers and experts would fear to give evidences about the truth expressed by Ms. Victoire Ingabire when she arrived in Rwanda mentioning that the Rwandan nation has to pay homage to all the victims of the tragedy without considering their ethnic backgrounds.

The arrest of Professor Peter Erlinder is not consistent with the freedom of fair trial and juridical representation since it tends to be extended to any lawyer who will come to defend the case.

Considering the whole dimension of this biased legal environment, threats, intimidation and frequent presidential interferences, I have informed the Prosecutor during today’s criminal interrogation that I will recourse, with immediate effect, to my right to remain silent until proper court hearings start.

Law professor who grew up on South Side jailed in Rwanda Peter Erlinder went to Rwanda to help opposition candidate

An attorney who grew up on Chicago's South Side and helped run his father's manufacturing company in the city before receiving a law degree has been arrested in Rwanda for allegedly denying genocide.

Now his family is working with lawmakers stateside and abroad to secure his release.

Peter Erlinder, 62, a law professor at William Mitchell College of Law in St. Paul, Minn., traveled to Rwanda on May 23 to help defend opposition presidential candidate Victoire Ingabire against charges of promoting genocidal ideology, his daughter, Sarah, said.

An estimated 800,000 people were killed during the 1994 Rwandan genocide. Ingabire aims to unseat Rwandan President Paul Kagame in the Aug. 9 elections.

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Erlinder was arrested Friday at his hotel in Rwanda's capital, Kigali, his daughter said. She said she hasn't been able to speak to her father.

A local Rwandan attorney and a U.S. attorney were able to see Erlinder on Saturday, but they were denied access Sunday and told to pay up if they wanted Erlinder to continue to eat in jail, Sarah Erlinder said.

"I think that this actually has very little to do with 1994 and the genocide and much more to do with representing unpopular opinions and people, opinions that are outside of the official government line," said Sarah Erlinder, 29, a University of Wisconsin law school graduate who lives in Flagstaff, Ariz.

Peter Erlinder started working for the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda in 2003, his daughter said. He also runs the Web site for the Rwanda Documents Project, where he publishes articles and commentaries critical of the Kagame government.

Erlinder grew up in Chicago's Brainerd neighborhood, the eldest of two boys, his brother, Scott, said. Their father owned Erlinder Manufacturing in Roseland, and their mother was the bookkeeper.

He graduated from Calumet High School and received a bachelor's degree from Bradley University, Scott Erlinder said. Erlinder attended Georgetown University Law School for about two years until his father died, then came home to Chicago for about three years to run the family business until it closed, his brother said. Erlinder went back to law school and graduated from Chicago-Kent College of Law.

In the late 1970s, Erlinder was a teaching fellow and lecturer at the University of Chicago and clerked for the Illinois attorney general in the general law division, according to his resume.

"We feel the best thing to do is if Peter can't defend himself, then putting pressure from the outside is the best way to stop the Rwandan government from doing anything," said Scott Erlinder.

by Ann GarrisonVictoire Ingabire Umuhoza is the leading presidential candidate challenging Rwandan President Paul Kagame – if he allows her to run.Rwandan police have arrested Peter Erlinder, the American lawyer who traveled to Rwanda’s capital, Kigali, on Monday, May 23, to join the defense team of Rwandan presidential candidate Victoire Ingabire Umuhoza. (Scroll down to watch the video interview recorded by Olivier Nyirubugara on May 23 at the end of this post.)

Ingabire was released after being summoned to a Rwandan police station yesterday, much to the relief of her supporters, but this morning both she and the Rwanda News Agency (RNA) reported that Erlinder had been arrested and charged with “genocide ideology,” a crime unique to Rwanda which Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International and even the U.S. State Department have denounced as a tool of political repression.

Erlinder, a prominent critic of Rwandan President Paul Kagame’s regime and of the received history of the Rwanda Genocide, had traveled to Kigali after attending the Second International Criminal Defense Lawyers’ Conference in Brussels.

State run Rwandan media have attacked Erlinder since his arrival and the Rwandan News Agency reports that he is now in custody and being interrogated at the Rwandan Police Force’s Kacyiru headquarters.

The RNA also reports that the American embassy in Kigali has taken up the matter, but it is not yet clear in what form. The embassy is located just meters away from the police headquarters.

Before leaving for Brussels and then Kigali, Erlinder notified the U.S. State Department, his Minnesota Congressional Rep. Betty McCollum and his friend in the neighboring district, Rep. Keith Ellison, and Minnesota Sens. Al Franken and Amy Klobuchar.

Erlinder bases his critique of the Kagame regime and the received history of the 1994 Rwanda Genocide on the evidence collected in his Rwanda Documents Project.

San Francisco writer Ann Garrison writes for the San Francisco Bay View, Digital Journal, Examiner.com, OpEdNews, Global Research, Colored Opinions and her blog, Plutocracy Now. She can be reached at anniegarrison@gmail.com. This story originally appeared in Digital Journal.Call script and list of people to call to get Professor Erlinder released from Kigali jail

by Kambale Musavuli

Kambale Musavuli, spokesperson and student coordinator for Friends of the Congo, breaks the silence at the Congo in Harlem Film Festival. His T-shirt, designed by Congolese artist Shako Oteka, depicts assassinated Congolese President Patrice Lumumba. – Photo: Shako OtekaThis is a call script to use – or compose your own – when calling in support of Professor Erlinder’s release from jail in Kigali:

Hello, __________________

My name is __________________.

I am calling as a concerned [citizen/student/constituent] to inform you that an American lawyer, Professor Peter Erlinder, was arrested in Rwanda while there to defend a pro-democracy opposition leader currently on trial. In recent months, opposition party candidates have been intimidated, physically attacked and arrested. Some were denied proper due process, and Professor Peter Erlinder was there to aid Victoire Ingabire Umuhoza in this regard.

I am calling therefore to ask that you take the necessary steps to secure his immediate release and demand that Rwanda allow him to continue his human rights work. Both Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International have reported on Rwanda’s ongoing gross disregard for human rights. Obstructing free and fair trials for the accused as in this case is a prime example such violations.

The arrest of Professor Peter Erlinder is a tragic occurrence in the ongoing struggle for justice, human rights and democracy in Rwanda. Therefore I am asking that you do all you can to help restore some semblance of justice and human rights by asking for the release of Professor Peter Erlinder, which will allow him to continue his human rights work.

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About MRPeter Erlinder Jailed by One of the Major Genocidaires of Our Eraby Edward S. Herman and David Peterson1

The May 28 arrest of the U.S. attorney Peter Erlinder by the Paul Kagame dictatorship in Rwanda reveals much about this regime that is routinely sanitized in establishment U.S. and Western intellectual life and media coverage. But if we use Erlinder's arrest to call attention to some less well-known facts, a much grimmer scenario about Kagame than as a "man of the hour in modern Africa," who "offers such encouraging hope for the continent's future" (Stephen Kinzer),2 comes to light.

For one thing, Kagame does not like free elections, and he has avoided or emasculated them assiduously. Erlinder arrived in Kigali on May 23 to take up the legal representation of Victoire Ingabire, a Hutu expatriate who had spent the past 16 years in the Netherlands, but who immediately upon her return to Rwanda in January was regarded as the leading opposition figure, though her United Democratic Forces hadn't been able to register as an official party. The Kagame regime arrested her on April 21, and charged her with "association with a terrorist group; propagating genocide ideology; negationism and ethnic divisionism."3 As 2010 is an election year in Rwanda (now scheduled for August 9), this should help Kagame once again to avoid any meaningful electoral contest.

In 2003, Rwanda's last election year, opposition parties, candidates, and media not only weren't welcomed, they wound up harassed, shut-down, arrested, exiled, and disappeared. In 2002, Kagame's main rival at the time, a Hutu and former President Pasteur Bizimungu, was arrested and charged with "divisionism," a kind of Kagame-speak that means to provide political choices other than the one-party Kagame dictatorship. In 2003, the Hutu former Prime Minister Faustin Twagiramungu was permitted onto the presidential ballot but prevented from campaigning, and his Democratic Republic Movement (MDR) banned altogether; he and his MDR were also accused of "divisionism."

The official August 25 presidential vote that year reported 94% for Kagame. In a country whose population then, as now, as at the start of 1994, was majority Hutu by roughly a 6-to-1 margin over the Tutsi, only Kagame's intimidation and repression of Rwanda's civil society, and his election-rigging, could have produced a result like this. Thus when Peter Erlinder spoke in late April about the arrest of Victoire Ingabire as a "carbon-copy of Kagame's tactics in 2003, when all serious political challengers were jailed or driven from the country," and when he likened the charges against her (and now against himself as well) to "trumped-up political thought-crimes . . . arising from the 'crime' of publicly objecting to the Kagame military dictatorship and Kagame's version of Rwandan civil war history,"4 this was what he meant.

The Arusha Accords of August 1993 had stipulated that national elections be held in Rwanda by no later than 1995, but this was precluded by the military takeover of Rwanda by Kagame and his Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF) in April-July 1994, which allowed the minority Tutsi faction (less than 15 percent) to seize power by force.

The allegation of "genocide denial" has been an important instrument of Kagame's rule, with potentially rival politicians, or in fact any Kagame target, so accused and pushed out of the way. According to news accounts during the first 24 hours after his arrest, Erlinder, a lead defense counsel before the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda and a former president of the National Lawyers Guild in New York, "is being charged with denying the Rwandan genocide and was being interrogated . . . at police headquarters in the capital, Kigali. . . . A police spokesman, Eric Kayingare, said that Mr. Erlinder was accused of 'denying the genocide' and 'negationism' from statements he had made at the tribunal in Arusha, as well as 'in his books, in publications'."5 Martin Ngoga, the Prosecutor General of the Kagame regime, told Agence France Presse that Erlinder "denies the genocide in his writings and his speeches. Worse than that, he has become an organizer of genocide deniers. If negating [the Tutsi genocide] is not punished in [the United States,] it is punished in Rwanda. And when he came here he knew that."6

Under Rwanda's 2003 Constitution,7 the "State of Rwanda commits itself to conform to the following fundamental principles and to promote and enforce the respect thereof," foremost of which is "fighting the ideology of genocide and all its manifestations" (Article 9). "Revisionism, negationism and trivialisation of genocide are punishable by the law" (Article 13). The Rwandan State is so conscious of the political usefulness of "genocide" that its Constitution even creates a National Commission For the Fight Against Genocide (Article 179).

Of course, this is straight out of Kafka, as a compelling case can be made that Kagame and his RPF were the major genocidaires in Rwanda and, in alliance with Uganda's Yoweri Museveni dictatorship, both under U.S. and U.K. protection, have extended and enlarged their genocidal operations to the neighboring Democratic Republic of Congo. Peter Erlinder has never denied the fact that mass-atrocity crimes and even genocide were committed in Rwanda, much less that a large number of Tutsi were slaughtered. But he has shown, with carefully gathered documentary evidence, that an even larger number of Hutu were also slaughtered there, and that Kagame and the RPF were the initiators and main perpetrators of these mass killings. This, ultimately, is what the charge of "denying the genocide" really means: Like a growing body of researchers, Erlinder rejects the version of the "Rwandan genocide" long since institutionalized within U.S.-, Western-, and RPF-establishment circles.

One of Erlinder's notable documentary discoveries is an internal memorandum drafted in September 1994 for the eyes of then-U.S. Secretary of State Warren Christopher, in which it was reported that a UN team on the ground in Rwanda "concluded that a pattern of killing had emerged" there, the "[RPF] and Tutsi civilian surrogates [killing] 10,000 or more Hutu civilians per month, with the [RPF] accounting for 95% of the killing." This memorandum added that the UN team "speculated that the purpose of the killing was a campaign of ethnic cleansing intended to clear certain areas in the south of Rwanda for Tutsi habitation. The killings also served to reduce the population of Hutu males and discouraged refugees from returning to claim their lands."8

We may recall that the reported (but contested9) massacre of 8,000 military-aged men at Srebrenica in July 1995 led to genocide charges, imprisonment of many Serb officials and military personnel, and huge indignation in the West. Yet, here is an internal U.S. document alleging "10,000 or more Hutu civilians" butchered per month by Kagame's forces to cleanse the ground for Tutsi resettlement -- and not only is the leading butcher not imprisoned, but his regime continues to bathe in Western support and adulation, and can get away with charging the man who helped expose his crimes with "genocide denial"!

Consider also the five following material facts:

1. The "triggering event" in the mass killings known as the "Rwandan genocide" was the shooting down of the Falcon-50 jet carrying then-Rwandan President Juvenal Habyarimana, then-Burundian President Cyprien Ntaryamira, and ten others on its approach to the Kanombe International Airport in Kigali on the evening of April 6, 1994. It is now conclusively established that these political assassinations were carried out by Kagame's forces. When ICTR investigator Michael Hourigan had assembled compelling evidence showing this, then-ICTR Chief Prosecutor Louise Arbour quashed his investigation on orders from U.S. officials. This official line of inquiry has been suppressed ever since, though it was amplified and confirmed by the French magistrate Jean-Louis Bruguière, whose own inquiry concluded in late 2006 that Kagame and the RPF, fully aware that they would lose the elections scheduled by the Arusha Accords due to the overwhelming majority enjoyed by the Hutu in the country, opted for the "physical elimination" of Habyarimana and reopening their assault on the Rwandan government to achieve their goal of an RPF-takeover of the country.10 Although three consecutive U.S. presidential administrations (Clinton's, Bush's, and Obama's) and the establishment U.S. media have been wonderfully cooperative in keeping crucial evidence such as this on the "genocide" out of public sight, the work of Peter Erlinder and his colleagues has been important in the struggle to counter the Western party-line.

2. The important U.S. analysts Christian Davenport and Allan Stam also concluded that more Hutu than Tutsi were killed during the period of the "Rwandan genocide" (April-July, 1994), and that killings on the ground in Rwanda actually "surged" in each area attacked by Kagame's RPF.11

3. Allan Stam, a former Special Forces soldier as well as an academician, has pointed out that the Kagame-RFP military offensive following the "triggering event" of the "Rwandan genocide" (i.e., the shootdown of the Falcon-50 jet) were closely modeled on the U.S. ground invasion of Iraq during the first Gulf War, and that Kagame's forces went into mass action within one hour of this event.12 (Kagame actually studied at Fort Leavenworth in the United States, and was apparently a quick learner.)

4. Both before and during the "Rwandan genocide," the United States pressed for the reduction of UN troops in Rwanda. The Rwandan government urged more UN troops,13 but the presence of a larger contingent of UN troops on the ground clearly would have interfered with Kagame's well-planned and executed military operations. This points up the likelihood that any pre-planned, organized mass killings were dominated by Kagame's RPF, and that the U.S. government supported it.

5. Kagame's forces established control of Rwanda within one hundred days of the triggering event. This is not consistent with the notion that his was an unplanned defensive reaction and that his ethnic group, the minority Tutsi, was the main victim.

Paul Kagame has used the excuse of pursuing "genocidaires" to justify his regular invasions of the Congo. The casualties in these operations, coordinated with fellow dictator Yoweri Museveni, have run into the millions. We believe that Kagame has far outstripped Idi Amin as a mass killer (Amin's killings are estimated at 100,000-300,000, whereas Kagame's surely run well over a million civilians). But Kagame is servicing establishment U.S. and Western interests, and for the past 20 years has therefore received a free pass to rob and kill.

And all the while, Kagame has ridden the wave of fighting against "genocide denial"! Hopefully, he has gone too far in using that Kafkaesque gimmick against Peter Erlinder, a notable fighter against both actual genocide and genocide denial.

Endnotes

1 For a much more comprehensive development of the themes discussed here, see Edward S. Herman and David Peterson, "Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of Congo in the Propaganda System," Monthly Review 60, May, 2010. Also see Herman and Peterson, The Politics of Genocide (New York: Monthly Review Press, 2010).

7 See Constitution of the Republic of Rwanda, June 4, 2003, and its Amendments, as posted to the website of the Rwandan Ministry of Defense. Here we note that the word 'genocide' appears no fewer than 14 different times in Rwanda's approx. 16,400-word-long Constitution.

8 George E. Moose, "Human Rights Abuses in Rwanda," Information Memorandum to The Secretary, U.S. Department of State, undated though clearly drafted between September 17 and 20, 1994. This document is archived at the Rwanda Documents Project at William Mitchell College of Law, St. Paul, Minnesota, ICTR Military-1 Exhibit, DNT 264.

12 See Allan C. Stam, "Coming to a New Understanding of the Rwanda Genocide," a lecture before the Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy, University of Michigan, February 18, 2009. Beginning at approx. the 22:47 mark, Stam explains: "Now, moments later, the RPF -- literally moments, somewhere between 60 and 120 minutes after his plane is shot down, the RPF invades. Now, we could characterize this invasion as, 'Wow, a spontaneous reaction to go in and defend our allies'. The problem is, this invasion looks staggeringly like the United States' invasion of Iraq in 1991. It has exactly the same features. There is a central drive in this case due south towards Kigali, very much like the central drive towards Baghdad. There is the sweeping left-hook -- but in this case because the map is reversed there is the sweeping right-hook. This is a plan that was not worked out on the back of an envelope. Fifty-thousand soldiers move into action on two fronts, in a coordinated fashion, 'spontaneously'? Tsk."

13 In the words of Rwandan UN Ambassador Jean-Damascène Bizimana: "[T]he international community does not seem to have acted in an appropriate manner to reply to the anguished appeal of the people of Rwanda. This question has often been examined from the point of view of the ways and means to withdraw [UNAMIR], without seeking to give the appropriate weight to the concern of those who have always believed, rightly, that, in view of the security situation now prevailing in Rwanda, UNAMIR's members should be increased to enable it to contribute to the re-establishment of the cease-fire and to assist in the establishment of security conditions that could bring an end to the violence. . . . The option chosen by the Council, reducing the number of troops in UNAMIR. . . , is not a proper response to this crisis. . . ." See "The situation concerning Rwanda," UN Security Council (S/PV.3368), April 21, 1994, 6.Edward S. Herman is professor emeritus of finance at the Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania and has written extensively on economics, political economy, and the media. Among his books are Corporate Control, Corporate Power (Cambridge University Press, 1981), The Real Terror Network (South End Press, 1982), and, with Noam Chomsky, The Political Economy of Human Rights (South End Press, 1979), and Manufacturing Consent (Pantheon, 2002). David Peterson is an independent journalist and researcher based in Chicago. Herman and Peterson are co-authors of The Politics of Genocide (New York: Monthly Review Press, 2010)

Sunday, May 30, 2010

A week after President Paul Kagame of Rwanda accused former army chief of staff Lt. Gen. Kayumba Nyamwasa and former intelligence boss Col. Patrick Karegeya of running away from accountability, the two officials, who live in exile in South Africa, give their side of the story in a statement emailed to Sunday Monitor by LT. GEN NYAMWASA.

“When I left Rwanda, my intention was to reunite my family, start a new life. Forget politics, the military and diplomacy –areas where I had previously served. I thought I would go into academics, consultancy or something different and actually take a lasting holiday from President Kagame with whom I had served for the last 16 years. Unfortunately, this was not to be. My name is always in the media for all wrong reasons.After my departure, President Kagame addressed a press conference where he labelled Patrick Karegeya and I as terrorists; while passing out cadets officers in Gako, he called us thieves; in Parliament he called us flies whom he will crush with a hammer; with Jeune Afrique he called me a traitor and with Monitor he called us reckless unaccountable officers.

For the recordFor purposes of clarity and for the sake of our families, friends, countrymen and all those who read your publication, I am forced to respond to put the record straight. In my presentation, I may make comparisons and analogies but they are by no means intended to offend. Otherwise silence may mean consent.

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* Why I fell out with Generals, says Kagame

President Kagame is not honest when he alleges that we ran away from accountability. [Our] disagreements [are] centred on governance, tolerance, insensitivity, intrigue and betrayal of our colleagues.

Furthermore, it is my considered opinion and strong convictions that we struggled for a country where there would be freedom of speech and association. On the contrary, towards the end of the last century, these ideals started shifting and the focus was no longer the country and Party but President Kagame.

This phenomenon was nurtured and promoted by opportunists and sycophants. I despised the trend of events and the category of people involved. The meeting prior to my departure was despicable and I held a number of people involved in contempt having transformed the RPF into a party where its main pre-occupation is furthering intrigue and hatred.

President Kagame should have told you that in 2003, together with another colleague, we asked to leave the Army and Government because we felt we did not fit in the scheme of things. He objected and expressed fear that if we left – we would cause trouble outside. I kept soldiering on hoping that there would be some sense of reason and may be things may change somehow. In retrospect, maybe I was naive or trusted too much or continued in self-denial like some of my friends are today.

Accountability for allPresident Kagame accuses us of escaping from accountability. We believe accountability is paramount but what we do not agree with is that an unaccountable person should victimise his perceived opponents in the name of accountability. If accountability is going to be used as a political weapon to frame perceived opponents, then it ceases to be meaningful or useful.

Accountability should begin from the top, beginning with the President before he demands accountability from his subordinates. In Rwanda, the Head of State is the most unaccountable person and has no moral authority to demand accountability from anybody. In Rwanda, President Kagame is the institutions.

I would wish to illustrate my point as follows: Firstly since President Kagame likes to talk about accountability to institutions, I would expect him to have appeared before Parliament to account for owning two XR Executive Jets which he hires to himself and makes at least two trips to America a month to receive fictitious honours, doctorates for himself and his wife or visiting his children.

Costly tripsThe minimum cost for each trip is close to $1 million. The two aircraft were bought by government money and registered in the names of a pseudo company. He should appear before the Ombudsman together with his adviser and an embassy official to explain where they got $100 million to buy the two executive aircrafts. The minister of finance should tell Parliament why government should service privately-owned aircraft. Does this reflect zero tolerance of corruption which the President constantly enforces? [The Rwandan government says it leases the jets from a private company in which private Rwandan nationals own a stake – Editor]. Secondly President Kagame should explain to Parliament who is the owner of the embassy building in London and his connection with the company in whose names the embassy building is registered.

Gallery politicsThirdly he should explain to the party and to the people of Rwanda why he heads a party without a treasurer and how much money RPF has since it owns all the biggest companies in the country and contributions of party members.

Fourthly, why was Arab Contractors simultaneously constructing his private residence in Muhazi together with the Ministry of Defence using government facilities? Minister Bikoro had to account for one container of tiles, how much money did President Kagame pay to Rwanda Revenue Authority for construction materials for his own houses?

President Kagame’s accountability demands are a farce, demagogue and playing to the gallery. Of course acting tough and ‘spitting fire’ insulates him from the inquisitive eye. However, everyone knows it is meant to intimidate, dupe the international community and create impressions for donors. To sustain all this, he employs intrigue, treachery, manipulation and betrayal. This was my point of departure.

As far as I am concerned, I always made sure that my property declaration forms were submitted to the Ombudsman on time and fortunately I have all the receipts to that effect. I have never appeared on the list of government officials suspended for lack of accountability. President Kagame would have been too happy to have me arrested if there was any irregularity in my declarations.

Turning pointPresident Kagame is on record commending me as an exemplary officer when I was Army Chief of Staff and served for uninterrupted five years as ambassador in India. At what stage did I become an unaccountable officer and terrorist? How can he turn around to ask for accountability after 10 years? Col. Karegeya served as intelligence chief for an uninterrupted 10 years. President Kagame called him nothing, useless and now terrorist! At what stage did President Kagame learn that Col. Karegeya was useless and nothing after all those years? The people of Rwanda are used to this mudslinging. Last month he appointed Commander of the Reserve Force and arrested him for abuse of office after one week. When did investigations take place? Another general is arrested for committing immoral acts – who is the complainant?

History at glanceDuring President Kayibanda’s regime [1962 – 1973], political dissenters were labelled ideological traitors. Later, President Habyarimana [1973 – 1994] would say that those escaping to exile were afraid of peace and tranquillity. In the 1980s President Habyarimana would remind Rwandans and the international community that his government was registering the highest GDP in the region, an island of peace and no one should talk about the democratic deficit that existed.

These days President Kagame accuses his perceived opponents of genocide ideology or terrorism and corruption. Everyone is expected to sing that Kigali is clean and we have developed. Do we develop without consciousness? I am afraid Rwanda has not changed a bit in terms of leadership.

President Kagame has personalised the Gen. Kayumba/Col. Karegeya issue. This is out of a guilty conscience. If people who participated in the struggle from day one and served at the highest level of the Army and Security are not colleagues in the Rwandan context, who is? President Kagame questions if he is running a dictatorship why was I not arrested straight away.

Ugandan contextSince he said this in the Monitor largely for the Ugandan readership, let me remind you that before Ben Kiwanuka died [in 1972], he had met Amin and so did Bishop Luwum. Since Amin met these two and others before killing them does it make him a democrat? Does Kagame imply that those who run away from Amin in 1978 had no justification and should have stayed? Furthermore, he alleges that the people who run away from 1995 and 1996 were maybe running away from me. Does he imply that he was not in charge at that time? Now that I have gone, let us see if there will be an exodus of returnees from exile. Kagame talks like someone who is wronged and aggrieved.

Tale of two familiesHow does he justify the incarceration of my wife and children in New Delhi, evicting them out of the embassy residence and dispossessing them of passports containing the multiple entry visas? To which institution did they have to account? If he had problems with me, what about my family?

Related Stories

* Why I fell out with Generals, says Kagame

While he was doing that to my family he was preparing a very expensive journey to West Point [military academy in New York] to see his son funded by a government we both worked to put in power. The irony is that in Rwanda there is only one family!

I saved President Kagame’s life twice during the struggle when everyone else had abandoned him in Nkana and Kanyantanga. Where were all those who are telling him that I am a traitor? History will tell who betrayed who. Those who served with us know the truth including those who opportunistically vilify me most.

Why choose exilePresident Kagame said he does not understand and cannot put his finger on the reasons why people run to exile. Surely the President must be having a very short memory; his entire family spent more than 30 years in exile. Does he insinuate that his parents were adventurers when they left Rwanda and somehow they gained their senses after 1994?

The answer is simple. In a democracy, people resort to courts of law for conflict resolution and in a dictatorship, people run for their dear lives. If a leader does not know why his/her citizens are running away then he is incapable of governing.”

Peter Erlinder Jailed by One of the Major Genocidaires of Our Eraby Edward S. Herman and David Peterson1

The May 28 arrest of the U.S. attorney Peter Erlinder by the Paul Kagame dictatorship in Rwanda reveals much about this regime that is routinely sanitized in establishment U.S. and Western intellectual life and media coverage. But if we use Erlinder's arrest to call attention to some less well-known facts, a much grimmer scenario about Kagame than as a "man of the hour in modern Africa," who "offers such encouraging hope for the continent's future" (Stephen Kinzer),2 comes to light.

For one thing, Kagame does not like free elections, and he has avoided or emasculated them assiduously. Erlinder arrived in Kigali on May 23 to take up the legal representation of Victoire Ingabire, a Hutu expatriate who had spent the past 16 years in the Netherlands, but who immediately upon her return to Rwanda in January was regarded as the leading opposition figure, though her United Democratic Forces hadn't been able to register as an official party. The Kagame regime arrested her on April 21, and charged her with "association with a terrorist group; propagating genocide ideology; negationism and ethnic divisionism."3 As 2010 is an election year in Rwanda (now scheduled for August 9), this should help Kagame once again to avoid any meaningful electoral contest.

In 2003, Rwanda's last election year, opposition parties, candidates, and media not only weren't welcomed, they wound up harassed, shut-down, arrested, exiled, and disappeared. In 2002, Kagame's main rival at the time, a Hutu and former President Pasteur Bizimungu, was arrested and charged with "divisionism," a kind of Kagame-speak that means to provide political choices other than the one-party Kagame dictatorship. In 2003, the Hutu former Prime Minister Faustin Twagiramungu was permitted onto the presidential ballot but prevented from campaigning, and his Democratic Republic Movement (MDR) banned altogether; he and his MDR were also accused of "divisionism."

The official August 25 presidential vote that year reported 94% for Kagame. In a country whose population then, as now, as at the start of 1994, was majority Hutu by roughly a 6-to-1 margin over the Tutsi, only Kagame's intimidation and repression of Rwanda's civil society, and his election-rigging, could have produced a result like this. Thus when Peter Erlinder spoke in late April about the arrest of Victoire Ingabire as a "carbon-copy of Kagame's tactics in 2003, when all serious political challengers were jailed or driven from the country," and when he likened the charges against her (and now against himself as well) to "trumped-up political thought-crimes . . . arising from the 'crime' of publicly objecting to the Kagame military dictatorship and Kagame's version of Rwandan civil war history,"4 this was what he meant.

The Arusha Accords of August 1993 had stipulated that national elections be held in Rwanda by no later than 1995, but this was precluded by the military takeover of Rwanda by Kagame and his Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF) in April-July 1994, which allowed the minority Tutsi faction (less than 15 percent) to seize power by force.

The allegation of "genocide denial" has been an important instrument of Kagame's rule, with potentially rival politicians, or in fact any Kagame target, so accused and pushed out of the way. According to news accounts during the first 24 hours after his arrest, Erlinder, a lead defense counsel before the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda and a former president of the National Lawyers Guild in New York, "is being charged with denying the Rwandan genocide and was being interrogated . . . at police headquarters in the capital, Kigali. . . . A police spokesman, Eric Kayingare, said that Mr. Erlinder was accused of 'denying the genocide' and 'negationism' from statements he had made at the tribunal in Arusha, as well as 'in his books, in publications'."5 Martin Ngoga, the Prosecutor General of the Kagame regime, told Agence France Presse that Erlinder "denies the genocide in his writings and his speeches. Worse than that, he has become an organizer of genocide deniers. If negating [the Tutsi genocide] is not punished in [the United States,] it is punished in Rwanda. And when he came here he knew that."6

Under Rwanda's 2003 Constitution,7 the "State of Rwanda commits itself to conform to the following fundamental principles and to promote and enforce the respect thereof," foremost of which is "fighting the ideology of genocide and all its manifestations" (Article 9). "Revisionism, negationism and trivialisation of genocide are punishable by the law" (Article 13). The Rwandan State is so conscious of the political usefulness of "genocide" that its Constitution even creates a National Commission For the Fight Against Genocide (Article 179).

Of course, this is straight out of Kafka, as a compelling case can be made that Kagame and his RPF were the major genocidaires in Rwanda and, in alliance with Uganda's Yoweri Museveni dictatorship, both under U.S. and U.K. protection, have extended and enlarged their genocidal operations to the neighboring Democratic Republic of Congo. Peter Erlinder has never denied the fact that mass-atrocity crimes and even genocide were committed in Rwanda, much less that a large number of Tutsi were slaughtered. But he has shown, with carefully gathered documentary evidence, that an even larger number of Hutu were also slaughtered there, and that Kagame and the RPF were the initiators and main perpetrators of these mass killings. This, ultimately, is what the charge of "denying the genocide" really means: Like a growing body of researchers, Erlinder rejects the version of the "Rwandan genocide" long since institutionalized within U.S.-, Western-, and RPF-establishment circles.

One of Erlinder's notable documentary discoveries is an internal memorandum drafted in September 1994 for the eyes of then-U.S. Secretary of State Warren Christopher, in which it was reported that a UN team on the ground in Rwanda "concluded that a pattern of killing had emerged" there, the "[RPF] and Tutsi civilian surrogates [killing] 10,000 or more Hutu civilians per month, with the [RPF] accounting for 95% of the killing." This memorandum added that the UN team "speculated that the purpose of the killing was a campaign of ethnic cleansing intended to clear certain areas in the south of Rwanda for Tutsi habitation. The killings also served to reduce the population of Hutu males and discouraged refugees from returning to claim their lands."8

We may recall that the reported (but contested9) massacre of 8,000 military-aged men at Srebrenica in July 1995 led to genocide charges, imprisonment of many Serb officials and military personnel, and huge indignation in the West. Yet, here is an internal U.S. document alleging "10,000 or more Hutu civilians" butchered per month by Kagame's forces to cleanse the ground for Tutsi resettlement -- and not only is the leading butcher not imprisoned, but his regime continues to bathe in Western support and adulation, and can get away with charging the man who helped expose his crimes with "genocide denial"!

Consider also the five following material facts:

1. The "triggering event" in the mass killings known as the "Rwandan genocide" was the shooting down of the Falcon-50 jet carrying then-Rwandan President Juvenal Habyarimana, then-Burundian President Cyprien Ntaryamira, and ten others on its approach to the Kanombe International Airport in Kigali on the evening of April 6, 1994. It is now conclusively established that these political assassinations were carried out by Kagame's forces. When ICTR investigator Michael Hourigan had assembled compelling evidence showing this, then-ICTR Chief Prosecutor Louise Arbour quashed his investigation on orders from U.S. officials. This official line of inquiry has been suppressed ever since, though it was amplified and confirmed by the French magistrate Jean-Louis Bruguière, whose own inquiry concluded in late 2006 that Kagame and the RPF, fully aware that they would lose the elections scheduled by the Arusha Accords due to the overwhelming majority enjoyed by the Hutu in the country, opted for the "physical elimination" of Habyarimana and reopening their assault on the Rwandan government to achieve their goal of an RPF-takeover of the country.10 Although three consecutive U.S. presidential administrations (Clinton's, Bush's, and Obama's) and the establishment U.S. media have been wonderfully cooperative in keeping crucial evidence such as this on the "genocide" out of public sight, the work of Peter Erlinder and his colleagues has been important in the struggle to counter the Western party-line.

2. The important U.S. analysts Christian Davenport and Allan Stam also concluded that more Hutu than Tutsi were killed during the period of the "Rwandan genocide" (April-July, 1994), and that killings on the ground in Rwanda actually "surged" in each area attacked by Kagame's RPF.11

3. Allan Stam, a former Special Forces soldier as well as an academician, has pointed out that the Kagame-RFP military offensive following the "triggering event" of the "Rwandan genocide" (i.e., the shootdown of the Falcon-50 jet) were closely modeled on the U.S. ground invasion of Iraq during the first Gulf War, and that Kagame's forces went into mass action within one hour of this event.12 (Kagame actually studied at Fort Leavenworth in the United States, and was apparently a quick learner.)

4. Both before and during the "Rwandan genocide," the United States pressed for the reduction of UN troops in Rwanda. The Rwandan government urged more UN troops,13 but the presence of a larger contingent of UN troops on the ground clearly would have interfered with Kagame's well-planned and executed military operations. This points up the likelihood that any pre-planned, organized mass killings were dominated by Kagame's RPF, and that the U.S. government supported it.

5. Kagame's forces established control of Rwanda within one hundred days of the triggering event. This is not consistent with the notion that his was an unplanned defensive reaction and that his ethnic group, the minority Tutsi, was the main victim.

Paul Kagame has used the excuse of pursuing "genocidaires" to justify his regular invasions of the Congo. The casualties in these operations, coordinated with fellow dictator Yoweri Museveni, have run into the millions. We believe that Kagame has far outstripped Idi Amin as a mass killer (Amin's killings are estimated at 100,000-300,000, whereas Kagame's surely run well over a million civilians). But Kagame is servicing establishment U.S. and Western interests, and for the past 20 years has therefore received a free pass to rob and kill.

And all the while, Kagame has ridden the wave of fighting against "genocide denial"! Hopefully, he has gone too far in using that Kafkaesque gimmick against Peter Erlinder, a notable fighter against both actual genocide and genocide denial.

Endnotes

1 For a much more comprehensive development of the themes discussed here, see Edward S. Herman and David Peterson, "Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of Congo in the Propaganda System," Monthly Review 60, May, 2010. Also see Herman and Peterson, The Politics of Genocide (New York: Monthly Review Press, 2010).

7 See Constitution of the Republic of Rwanda, June 4, 2003, and its Amendments, as posted to the website of the Rwandan Ministry of Defense. Here we note that the word 'genocide' appears no fewer than 14 different times in Rwanda's approx. 16,400-word-long Constitution.

8 George E. Moose, "Human Rights Abuses in Rwanda," Information Memorandum to The Secretary, U.S. Department of State, undated though clearly drafted between September 17 and 20, 1994. This document is archived at the Rwanda Documents Project at William Mitchell College of Law, St. Paul, Minnesota, ICTR Military-1 Exhibit, DNT 264.

12 See Allan C. Stam, "Coming to a New Understanding of the Rwanda Genocide," a lecture before the Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy, University of Michigan, February 18, 2009. Beginning at approx. the 22:47 mark, Stam explains: "Now, moments later, the RPF -- literally moments, somewhere between 60 and 120 minutes after his plane is shot down, the RPF invades. Now, we could characterize this invasion as, 'Wow, a spontaneous reaction to go in and defend our allies'. The problem is, this invasion looks staggeringly like the United States' invasion of Iraq in 1991. It has exactly the same features. There is a central drive in this case due south towards Kigali, very much like the central drive towards Baghdad. There is the sweeping left-hook -- but in this case because the map is reversed there is the sweeping right-hook. This is a plan that was not worked out on the back of an envelope. Fifty-thousand soldiers move into action on two fronts, in a coordinated fashion, 'spontaneously'? Tsk."

13 In the words of Rwandan UN Ambassador Jean-Damascène Bizimana: "[T]he international community does not seem to have acted in an appropriate manner to reply to the anguished appeal of the people of Rwanda. This question has often been examined from the point of view of the ways and means to withdraw [UNAMIR], without seeking to give the appropriate weight to the concern of those who have always believed, rightly, that, in view of the security situation now prevailing in Rwanda, UNAMIR's members should be increased to enable it to contribute to the re-establishment of the cease-fire and to assist in the establishment of security conditions that could bring an end to the violence. . . . The option chosen by the Council, reducing the number of troops in UNAMIR. . . , is not a proper response to this crisis. . . ." See "The situation concerning Rwanda," UN Security Council (S/PV.3368), April 21, 1994, 6.Edward S. Herman is professor emeritus of finance at the Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania and has written extensively on economics, political economy, and the media. Among his books are Corporate Control, Corporate Power (Cambridge University Press, 1981), The Real Terror Network (South End Press, 1982), and, with Noam Chomsky, The Political Economy of Human Rights (South End Press, 1979), and Manufacturing Consent (Pantheon, 2002). David Peterson is an independent journalist and researcher based in Chicago. Herman and Peterson are co-authors of The Politics of Genocide (New York: Monthly Review Press, 2010). Comments (3) | PrintMRStatCounter - Free Web Tracker and Counter

Saturday, May 29, 2010

Paul Rusesabagina is a Rwandan who has been internationally honored for saving 1,268 refugees during the Rwandan Genocide.

For Immediate ReleaseContact: Kitty KurthPhone: 312-617-7288

May 28, 2010

American Law Professor Arrested in Kigali

The Rwanda News Agency reported today that American law professor C. Peter Erlinder (William and Mitchell College of Law - Minnesota) was arrested over accusations related to negating the Rwandan genocide. The Hotel Rwanda Rusesabagina Foundation deplores this clearly politically motivated arrest, and implores the international community to act quickly and decisively to demand Professor Erlinder's immediate release from custody.

Erlinder, an outspoken critic of the Kagame regime, is frequently criticized by the Rwandan government. His name recently appeared on a publicized list of foreigners who the Rwandan government allegedly wants silenced for their views. Erlinder traveled to Rwanda last week to defend presidential candidate Victoire Ingabire on the charges brought against her by the Rwandan government. Mrs. Ingabire, a political opponent of current President Kagame, was jailed recently and is currently under house arrest for expressing her political views, which are in opposition to official government policies. Erlinder is also a defense lawyer and leader of the association of defense attorneys defending Rwandan genocide suspects at the International Criminal Tribunal in Arusha, Tanzania. His current trip to Rwanda was intended to provide defense counsel in a peaceful legal process, but with this arrest his human rights, liberty and possibly his person safety are in danger.

Professor Erlinder was reportedly arrested on charges of "genocide negationism," which means that he disagrees with the official version of the 1994 genocide perpetuated by the current Rwandan regime. This law is frequently applied to silence critics of the regime, including in the past Mrs. Ingabire, Human Rights Watch investigators, and even the BBC.

Immediate action is needed to free Professor Erlinder and guarantee his human rights and personal safety.

Opposition presidential candidate Victoire Ingabire Umuhoza stood before a judge in Kigali, Rwanda, on April 22, after the Kagame government arrested and charged her with "associating with terrorists" and "genocide ideology," a crime unique to Rwanda which includes "divisionism" and "revisionism," meaning politics, and/or attempting to revise the received history of the 1994 Rwanda Genocide.

Two weeks earlier, on April 7th, speaking at a commemorative ceremony, on the 16th anniversary of the civilian massacres known as the Rwanda Genocide, Rwandan President Paul Kagame referred to Victoire Ingabire Umuhoza as "some lady," an example of "some people" who "just come from nowhere, useless people." He refused to speak her proper name, though she is widely acknowledged as the leading opposition candidate in Rwanda's 2010 presidential election, and many of her supporters now call her Africa's female Mandela:

"Some people want to encourage political hooliganism. Some people just come from nowhere, useless people. I see everytime in the pictures, some lady who had her deputy, a genocide criminal, her deputy, talking about "y'know, there's Rwanda Genocide, but there is another. . . so that is politics. And the world says, 'The opposition leader!' But I know those who say it and who support that. They know it is wrong, but it is an expression of contempt these people have for Rwandans and for Africans, that they think Africans deserve to be led by these hooligans, and to that we say NO, a big NO. And if anybody wants a fight there, we'll give them a fight." --Paul Kagame, http://www.youtube.com/watchv=vO9Zad51kJc&feature=related

Two weeks later, on April 21st, Kagame's security police arrested Ingabire, then brought her before a Rwandan court for a bail hearing within six hours, creating a flurry of international news. Not only the African press, but also the BBC, Radio Netherlands, CNN, Yahoo News via Agence France Presse, and other outlets around the world, including the San Francisco Bay View, National Black Newspaper, Black Star News, and Global Research reported the story, and it appeared on blogs across Africa, Europe, and North America, often with notes urging readers to contact Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch.

Two days later, on April 23rd, Rwandan authorities gave Human Rights Watch researcher Carina Tertsakian, 24 hours to get out of the country.

Even the New York Times, which had until then ignored this year's Rwandan presidential election, finally published three accounts of Ingabire's arrest on April 21st, and the next day the Washington Post, which had also been ignoring the story, finally published a Reuters wire reporting that Ingabire had been released on bail that morning.

Shortly after the news of her release, the International Humanitarian Law Institute of St. Paul Minnesota announced that its director, William and Mitchell Law School Professor Peter Erlinder, and Wichita Lawyer Kurt P. Kerns, will join Ingabire's Rwandan lawyer Protais Mutembe in her legal defense. Ingabire is charged with "genocide related crime," meaning crime related to the 1994 Rwanda Genocide, the central narrative justifying Rwanda's political life and relationship to the outside world, and, most of all, to its most ardent defenders and donors, the US and the UK.

Erlinder is Professor of Constitutional Criminal Law and International Humanitarian Law at William Mitchell College of Law, President of ICTR-ADAD (Association des Avocats de la Defense), and past President of the National Lawyers Guild, NY, NY. Most significantly, in Ingabire's case, he is the Lead Defense Counsel in the Military-1 trial at the UN's International Criminal Tribunal on Rwanda (ICTR), where he won a victory of enormous significance to Rwandan history---the acquittal of four former top military leaders accused of conspiring and planning to commit genocide or any other crimes in 1994.

The ICTR acquitted its highest ranking defendant, Colonel Bagosora, on December 18, 2008, after which Erlinder wrote:

". . . ALL of the top Rwandan military officers, including the supposedly infamous Colonel Bagosora, were found not guilty of conspiracy or planning to commit genocide. And Gen. Gratien Kabiligi, a senior member of the general staff was acquitted of all charges! The others were found guilty of specific acts committed by subordinates, in specific places, at specific times - not an overall conspiracy to kill civilians, much less Rwandan-Tutsi civilians."

"This raises the more profound question: If there was no conspiracy and no planning to kill ethnic (i.e., Tutsi) civilians, can the tragedy that engulfed Rwanda properly be called “a genocide” at all? Or, was it closer to a case of civilians being caught up in war-time violence, like the Eastern Front in WWII, rather than the planned behind-the-lines killings in Nazi death camps? The ICTR judgment found the former."

"The Court specifically found that the actions of Rwandan military leaders, both before and after the April 6, 1994, assassination of former Rwandan President Juvenal Habyarimana, Rwanda's head of state at the time of his murder, were consistent with war-time conditions and the massive chaos brought about by the four-year war of invasion from Uganda by General Paul Kagame's RPF Army, which seized power in July 1994. ----Professor Peter Erlinder, "Rwanda: No Conspiracy, No Genocide Planning. . . No Genocide?," Jurist, 12.23.2008, Global Research, 01.24.2009

Erlinder says that the Court's ruling in December 2008 should have radically revised the world's understanding of the 1994 Rwanda Genocide, but because there were no international press covering the ICTR by December 2008, 14 years after the slaughter that left 1 million or more Rwandans dead, and because of international political investment in the received history, it continues to be told in the Wikipedia and repeated by most news outlets whenever they revisit Rwanda or the Rwandan violence of 1994.

At the ICTR, Erlinder was able to assemble the evidence and argue the case that led to the court's conclusion that there was no conspiracy, and no planning to commit genocide, and therefore no genocide crime like that covered by the international law created by the UN Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide after the Nazi death camps of World War II.

Though the international press had indeed turned away from Rwanda and the ICTR by December 2008, its attention is now on Victoire Ingabire Umuhoza and her trial, less than four months before Rwanda's August 9th polls. Though her party, the United Democratic Forces, (UDF)-Inkingi, remains unable to register, and she herself has now been indicted, she continues to attempt to contest the election.

"Ingabire was arrested on trumped-up, political thought crimes, including association with a terrorist group, propagating the genocide ideology, genocide denial, revisionism, and divisionism, all arising from the "crime" of publicly objecting to the Kagame military dictatorship, and Kagame's version of the Rwandan Civil War," Erlinder said.

If he and Rwandan lawyer Protais Mutembe can make the same case that he was able to make at the ICTR, then the international press may have to decide whether or not to report that, in Rwanda, in 1994, there was "no conspiracy, no planning . . . no genocide?" This, of course, depends on how the world defines "genocide," but, the genocide ideology statutes that Victoire is charged with violating---for having said that Hutus, as well as Tutsis, were victims of crimes against humanity---would become impossible to defend.

And, it might finally emerge that there has been a massive cover-up of the real story of what we know as the Rwanda Genocide, as Global Research writers have pointed out for years in, e.g., Rwanda: Installing a U.S. Protectorate in Central Africa and The Geopolitics behind the Rwanda Genocide; Paul Kagame Accused of War Crimes, by Michel Chossudovsky, The US Sponsored "Rwanda Genocide'" and its AftermathPsychological Warfare, Embedded Reporters and the Hunting of Refugees, by Keith Harmon Snow, andU.S./U.K./Allies Grab Congo Riches and Millions Die, by Peter Erlinder.

If international reporters finally do begin to cover the real story of the Rwanda Genocide and the Congo War, then Paul Kagame's regime, which Hillary Clinton has called "the beacon of hope" for Africa, will cease to seem so to the outside world.

No one, least of all Professor Erlinder, denies that the bloodshed in Rwanda, in 1994 was horrific, but he says, as he did when I spoke to him for KPFA Radio, that the received history of Rwanda in 1994, and the ensuing war in neighboring D.R. Congo are history written by the victors, and by their backers, the U.S. and the UK:Indeed, on April 30, in an Oklahoma City, Oklahoma Court, Professor Erlinder, Kurt B. Kerns, and Oklahoma lawyer John P. Zelbst filed a lawsuit, alleging that Kagame and nine of his current and former military officers and government officials are guilty of the assassination of Rwandan President Juvenal Habyarimana andBurundian President Cyprien Ntaryamira, and subsequent acts which caused the civilian massacres that came to be known as the Rwanda Genocide, costing a million lives.

And, that they are guilty of racketeering to acquire and maintain an interest in the resources of the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo, at a cost of 6 million more lives.

D.R. Congo is one of the most resource rich nations on earth and its mineral wealth, most of all its cobalt reserves, are essential to modern military industries' ability to manufacture for war. The U.S. is the world's largest consumer of cobalt.

The eight counts alleged in Habyarimana vs. Kagame are:

Wrongful Death - Murder,

Crimes against Humanity,

Violation of the Rights of Life, Liberty, and Security of Person,

Assault and Battery,

Intentional Infliction of Emotional Stress,

Violations of the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) Act,

Torture, and,

Conspiracy to Torture

Media outlets around the world reported that Kagame had escaped process service in the U.S. on April 30th, but Peter Erlinder told KPFA Radio News, that Kagame had violated the law by doing so, and, that, assuming the law is upheld, he will be served and required to answer.

Click to listen to KPFA Radio News, May 2, 2010:

As Erlinder, and lawyers Kurt P. Kerns and John P. Zelbst, prepare to advance the case against Rwandan President Paul Kagame, Erlinder and Kerns also prepare to defend Victoire Ingabire Umuhoza, against Kagame's Rwandan government.

"I consider it my job to say things that my clients are not free to say," says Erlinder, "and I'm sure that Mrs. Ingabire realized that when she asked me to defend her."

Also, click to play:

KPFA Radio News, April 4, 2010: Peter Erlinder and Paul Rusesabagina on the 16th anniversary of political assassinations that triggered the Rwanda Genocide.

Ann Garrison is an independent journalist based in San Francisco, a regular contributor to the San Francisco Bay View, National Black Newspaper, Global Research, and Digital Journal, and a news producer for KPFARadio-Berkeley.

Ann Garrison is a frequent contributor to Global Research. Global Research Articles by Ann Garrison

The US government has accused the Rwandan authorities of taking "worrying actions" to restrict freedom of expression ahead of the August 9 presidential poll, the State Department website said.

"The political environment ahead of the election has been riddled by a series of worrying actions taken by the Government of Rwanda, which appear to be attempts to restrict the freedom of expression," US Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs Johnnie Carson was quoted as saying.

Carson made the remarks on Tuesday while addressing a house committee in Washington.

"In a period of months, the Government of Rwanda has suspended two newspapers, revoked the work permit and denied the visa of a Human Rights Watch researcher, and arrested (and subsequently released on bail) opposition leader Victoire Ingabire," Carson said.

He went on to say that despite several attempts, two political parties, the Green party and the FDU (Unified Democratic Forces, led by Victoire Ingabire) "have still not been able to register".

He also noted "dissensions" within the ruling Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF), headed by President Paul Kagame.

"We have relayed our concerns about these developments to the Government of Rwanda, urging senior government leaders to respect freedoms of expression, press, association, and assembly," Carson went on.

"In particular, we have pressed leaders to allow all international and domestic non-governmental organizations and media to operate and report freely," he said.

Washington also asked Rwanda "to treat Victoire Ingabire in accordance with international law, ensure due process, and give her a speedy, fair, and transparent trial".

"We have urged the Government of Rwanda and all regional and international partners to work together to achieve free, fair, and peaceful elections that the people of Rwanda deserve," Carson went on.

"We appreciate, in the context of the most tragic event in recent history -the genocide - the need for security, stability, and reconciliation is critical. But long-term stability is best promoted by democratic governance and respect for human rights," Carson said.

So far two candidates from registered parties have been declared for the August election: the incumbent president and Jean Damascene Ntawukuriyayo of the Social Democratic Party (PSD), a grouping that has traditionally been allied to Kagame's RPF.

The US government has accused the Rwandan authorities of taking "worrying actions" to restrict freedom of expression ahead of the August 9 presidential poll, the State Department website said.

"The political environment ahead of the election has been riddled by a series of worrying actions taken by the Government of Rwanda, which appear to be attempts to restrict the freedom of expression," US Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs Johnnie Carson was quoted as saying.

Carson made the remarks on Tuesday while addressing a house committee in Washington.

"In a period of months, the Government of Rwanda has suspended two newspapers, revoked the work permit and denied the visa of a Human Rights Watch researcher, and arrested (and subsequently released on bail) opposition leader Victoire Ingabire," Carson said.

He went on to say that despite several attempts, two political parties, the Green party and the FDU (Unified Democratic Forces, led by Victoire Ingabire) "have still not been able to register".

He also noted "dissensions" within the ruling Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF), headed by President Paul Kagame.

"We have relayed our concerns about these developments to the Government of Rwanda, urging senior government leaders to respect freedoms of expression, press, association, and assembly," Carson went on.

"In particular, we have pressed leaders to allow all international and domestic non-governmental organizations and media to operate and report freely," he said.

Washington also asked Rwanda "to treat Victoire Ingabire in accordance with international law, ensure due process, and give her a speedy, fair, and transparent trial".

"We have urged the Government of Rwanda and all regional and international partners to work together to achieve free, fair, and peaceful elections that the people of Rwanda deserve," Carson went on.

"We appreciate, in the context of the most tragic event in recent history -the genocide - the need for security, stability, and reconciliation is critical. But long-term stability is best promoted by democratic governance and respect for human rights," Carson said.

So far two candidates from registered parties have been declared for the August election: the incumbent president and Jean Damascene Ntawukuriyayo of the Social Democratic Party (PSD), a grouping that has traditionally been allied to Kagame's RPF.

International Human Rights Advocates join Erlinder family to condemn Rwanda's arrest of U.S. Attorney Peter Erlinder and demand his immediate release. Saturday, May 29, 2010 (Washington, DC) –Professor Erlinder, a faculty member at William Mitchell College of Law in the United States and president of the Association des Avocats de la Defense (ADAD), the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) Defense Lawyers Association, was arrested by the government of Rwanda under the leadership of president Paul Kagame. Peter Erlinder has been arrested in the course of his representation of Rwanda’s opposition leader, Victoire Ingabire. Erlinder’s arrest was politically motivated and seeks to punish him for fulfilling his responsibilities as a lawyer, to be a vigorous and conscientious advocate for his clients. The Rwandan government and President Kagame must allow fair and public trials. Erlinder’s advocacy is in the finest tradition of the legal profession and every individual and government committed to the rule of law, including the authorities in Rwanda, should applaud his dedication to human rights and international law. As international human rights activists, we join the Erlinder family to call on the United States government, the United Nations, non-governmental organizations and individuals around the world to prevail upon Rwanda to release Erlinder immediately. The U.S. has had a special relationship with Rwanda which remains one of the largest recipients of U.S. foreign assistance in Africa. Given the U.S. government's expressed commitment to democracy and the rule of law, it is critical that the Obama Administration and the U.S. Congress uphold these values in Rwanda and demand the immediate release of Peter Erlinder, an advocate of justice.

"Professor Erlinder has been acting in the best tradition of the legal profession and has been a vigorous advocate in his representation of his clients. There can be no justice for anyone if the state can silence lawyers for representing defendants it dislikes. A government that seeks to prevent lawyers from being vigorous advocates for their clients cannot be trusted. The entire National Lawyers Guild is honored by Erlinder's membership, his leadership as past president and his courageous advocacy." said David Gespass, president of the National Lawyers Guild.

"The offense Peter is charged with is not based on facts, but on the suppression of free speech in his representation of clients, which undermines the rule of law. His family knows he stands with people who are oppressed by those in power and he encourages people to stand up for justice." Masako Usui, wife of Peter Erlinder.

"The real issue here seems to be whether the U.S. and the world will stand by and allow my father to be detained and prosecuted for doing his job, as an attorney and advocate for his clients. After a career of defense of others, he needs our help now demanding his immediate release and dismissal of all charges." said Sarah Erlinder, daughter of Peter Erlinder.

"The International Association of Democratic Lawyers (IADL) is outraged at the arrest of Peter Erlinder in Rwanda. This arrest violates the rights and privileges of lawyers in discharging their professional responsibilities, constitutes a willful obstruction of the judicial process and is in gross violation of the rights of defense of an accused person," said Jeanne Mirer, President, International Association of Democratic Lawyers

New York - The National Lawyers Guild (NLG) demands the immediate release of its former president, Professor Peter Erlinder, whom Rwandan Police arrested early today on charges of "genocide ideology." He had traveled to Rwanda's capital, Kigali, on May 23, to join the defense team of Rwandan presidential candidate Victoire Ingabire Umuhoza. Erlinder is reportedly being interrogated at the Rwandan Police Force's Kacyiru headquarters.

Professor Erlinder has been acting in the best tradition of the legal profession and has been a vigorous advocate in his representation of Umuhoza. There can be no justice for anyone if the state can silence lawyers for defendants whom it dislikes and a government that seeks to prevent lawyers from being vigorous advocates for their clients cannot be trusted. The entire National Lawyers Guild is honored by his membership and his courageous advocacy," said David Gespass, the Guild's president.

Erlinder traveled to Kigali after attending the Second International Criminal Defense Lawyers' Conference in Brussels. Since his arrival in Kigali, the state-sponsored Rwandan media has been highly critical of Erlinder. The Rwandan Parliament adopted the "Law Relating to the Punishment of the Crime of Genocide Ideology" (Genocide Ideology Law), on July 23, 2008. It defines genocide ideology broadly, requires no link to any genocidal act, and can be used to include a wide range of legitimate forms of expression, prohibiting speech protected by international conventions such as the Genocide Convention of 1948 and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights 1966.

Sarah Erlinder, Arizona attorney and NLG member said, "My father has made a career defending unpopular people and unpopular speech - and is now being held because of his representation of unpopular clients and analysis of an historical narrative that the Kagame regime considers inconvenient.We can help defend his rights now by drawing U.S. government and media attention to his situation and holding the Rwandan government accountable for his well-being."

Before leaving for Brussels and then Kigali, Professor Erlinder notified the U.S. State Department, his Minnesota Congressional Representative Betty McCullom, Representative Keith Ellison, and Minnesota Senators Al Franken and Minnesota Senator Amy Klobuchar.

Professor Erlinder is a professor of law at the William Mitchell College of Law. He is a frequent litigator and consultant, often pro bono, in cases involving the death penalty, civil rights, claims of government and police misconduct, and criminal defense of political activists. He is also a frequent news commentator. Erlinder was president of the National Lawyers Guild from 1993-1997, and is a current board member of the NLG Foundation. He has been a defense attorney at the UN International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda since 2003.

The National Lawyers Guild, founded in 1937, is the oldest and largest public interest/human rights bar organization in the United States. Its headquarters are in New York and it has chapters in every state. # # #

Kigali: American national Prof. Peter Erlinder is scheduled to appear in court following arrest by Police detectives over negating the Tutsi mass Genocide. The arrest of the fire-brand criminal lawyer comes as President Kagame prepares to leave for Paris for a France-Africa summit, RNA reports.

Mr. Erlinder was rounded up Friday morning by detectives from the Criminal Investigations Department (CID). He was immediately moved to the CID office in the Police headquarters located within walking distance of the American embassy.

The controversial attorney was arrested for denying the 1994 Tutsi Genocide, said Police Spokesman Eric Kayiranga. “He is accused of [denying the massacres] through publications, conferences, constantly denying that there was never Genocide in Rwanda. He has also said everything we say about the Genocide is a fabrication.”

The Police Spokesman said Prof. Erlinder will be handed to the National Prosecuting Authority which should culminate into an appearance in a court within 72 hours.

When contacted, U.S. Embassy public affairs officer Edwina Sagitto simply said: "The embassy is aware of the arrest of Peter Erlinder by Rwandan Police. Beyond that, the embassy cannot comment due to privacy concerns."

Peter Erlinder is a professor of law at William Mitchell College of Law in the United States. He directs the non-profit International Humanitarian Law Institute, and he is the lead defence counsel at the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR).

The attorney arrived in Kigali on Sunday from a conference in Belgium which has been described by government and Genocide survivors as platform for negationists. Several Genocide fugitives were invited as speakers, including Dr. Eugene Rwamucyo, who was arrested by French authorities on Tuesday.

Police spokesman Kayiranga said Prof. Erlinder was arrested five days later because the dossier was still being prepared. “We do not just detain people … it is done after a dossier is ready,” he said.

The prosecutions department told reporters that the suspect will be paraded in court anytime but within the prescribed timeframe of not more than seventy-two hours.

Mr. Erlinder was picked up at 8:30am from the Tunisian-owned Laico Hotel (formerly Novotel Hotel) in Kacyiru where he was staying. Incidentally, the hotel is located within view of the American embassy.

He is described in Rwanda as the ‘big fish defender’ because of his association with Ingabire Victoire, Genocide accused Col Theoneste Bagosora and most recently former First Lady Agathe Kanziga Habyarimana. All the three carry serious accusations related to the Tutsi mass slaughter.

The arrest comes a day after the US government declared its stance on Rwanda, for the first time in several years coming out strongly against the human rights situation in the country. The top US diplomat for Africa, Johnnie Carson, demanded a “speedy, fair, and transparent trial” for Ingabire.

The American diplomat for Africa made reference to the suspended tabloids UMUVUGIZI and UMUSESO, as well as the Human Rights Watch researcher Carina Tertsakian who was refused a work permit in April. He also informed American lawmakers of the progress of the imminent trail of government critic Ingabire Victoire, as well as the registration of the two opposition parties.

“We have relayed our concerns about these developments to the Government of Rwanda, urging senior government leaders to respect freedoms of expression, press, association, and assembly,” Carson said Tuesday before the House Foreign Affairs Committee Subcommittee on Africa and Global Health.

However, Foreign Affairs Minister and Government Spokesman Louise Mushikiwabo strongly dismissed the concerns.

“The concerns expressed by the US Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs over the state of rights and freedoms in Rwanda at this particular time need to be contextualized: it is a result of an out-of-Rwanda reading of the situation in Rwanda, with added election hype,” she said in an email message Thursday to RNA.

Meanwhile, after denouncing Prof. Peter Erlinder on Thursday in a statement, Genocide survivors on Friday took their anger to the American embassy. Carrying placards, a group of over 100 demonstrators including students in school uniform called for his arrest and prosecution.

Prof. Erlinder was part of a three-man team of lawyers who tried to serve President Kagame with a notice of suit at the Oklahoma University in April accusing him of responsibility for the assassination of ex-President Juvenal Habyarimana.

The suit was filed by Agathe Habyarimana and Sylvana Ntaryarima – the two widows to the presidents who died in the same plane on April 06 1994 – culminating into the Tutsi Genocide.

The arrest of the American lawyer also comes as President Kagame prepares to head to Paris for the France-Africa summit next week. It will be the first time the President has visited France since his time as a rebel lead